Increasingly, many aspects of our lives are monitored and recorded. For example, video surveillance is prevalent, recording scenes for news, general information, and security purposes. Security cameras record visual information of desired locations such as banks, storefronts, automatic teller machines, businesses, roadways, parks, etc.
Video recordings are used for a variety of purposes. Persons whose images are captured can be used to help identify and locate the persons, e.g., if they have committed a crime. Unexpected events can be captured by constantly-monitoring cameras that would otherwise not be captured, and the events viewed, e.g., on television or through the internet. Further, video can be analyzed for particular events or characteristics, such as stopped vehicles.
Analyzing video recordings for stopped vehicles has several applications. For example, a video device capturing video of a roadway may be analyzed for stopped vehicles in order to alert services such as the police, the fire department, and/or roadside assistance. Further, locations where vehicles are prohibited from stopping may be monitored in order to determine if a vehicle has stopped in an undesired location. Stopped vehicles may be of concern for a variety of reasons such as that the vehicle is blocking a fire lane, or that the vehicle may pose a terrorist threat.